What is the difference between Data Architect vs Data Engineer?

Career: Data Architect

AspectData ArchitectData Engineer
Required CredentialsBachelor's or Master’s in Computer Science, certifications like TOGAF or AWS Certified Data AnalyticsBachelor's in Computer Science, certifications like Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer or AWS Certified Data Analytics
Work EnvironmentDesigns data systems, collaborates with stakeholders, plans data infrastructureBuilds, maintains, and optimizes data pipelines and databases
Employer & Industry UsageUsed across industries for data strategy and architecture planningCommonly employed in data-driven companies for data processing and pipeline development

While both roles work closely with data systems, a Data Architect focuses on designing the overall data infrastructure and strategy, whereas a Data Engineer implements and maintains the data pipelines and systems based on that architecture.